Global Food Security Act Would Create White House Coordinator For Food Position

Jul 29, 2013

“The Global Food Security Act (HR 2822), introduced Thursday by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), would appoint a White House Coordinator for Food, Nutrition, and Agricultural Development. It’s a ‘food ambassador’ of sorts,” author William Lambers writes in an opinion piece in The Hill’s “Congress Blog.” He continues, “It will be someone who would be in charge of the U.S. response against hunger which is currently spread out among a number of agencies.” He notes, “There are 33 humanitarian aid agencies that support this bill including the World Food Program USA, Catholic Relief Services, Church World Service, U.S. Fund for UNICEF and Save the Children.” Lambers quotes Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), who said, “The Global Food Security Act is a comprehensive approach to tackling the food insecurity epidemic that plagues more than 870 million people worldwide by better coordinating U.S. assistance and making accountability a priority to assess progress and the efficient use of foreign aid funding.” Lambers concludes, “Hunger has traditionally been an area of bipartisan cooperation. In fact, Democrat George McGovern (S.D.) and Republican Bob Dole (Kansas) cooperated for years on fighting hunger both here at home and abroad. We should expect no less now from the current elected officials” (7/26).